A pair of nesting Brandt’s Cormorants are part of the large nesting colony on Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz Island is isolated in the midst of San Francisco Bay (photo by Zoe Burr).

The birds of Alcatraz add an unexpected wildlife dimension to any day trip to Alcatraz. In fact, a number of birds have established nesting colonies on Alcatraz Island, including Brandt’s Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Western Gulls, and Black Oystercatchers. It underlines the abundance and diversity of birds in the middle of one of the world’s most urbanized and most celebrated estuaries – San Francisco Bay. The nesting species and other birds that utilize the island, including Brown Pelicans and a variety of terns and gulls, are supported by what can sometimes be vast shoals of northern anchovy fish, often located just west of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Even though 1.4 million tourists visit Alcatraz Island each year, an island surrounded by the Bay Area’s 8 million people, these birds are flourishing. The National Park Service has cordoned off the nesting colony on the west side of the island to avoid disturbances, and volunteer docents are stationed at vantage points to inform visitors about the nesting birds.

Bird nesting colonies are often established in remote places, but Alcatraz offers a special chance to see some of these beautiful nesting birds up-close, explained Zoe Burr, a biologist with the Farallon Institute. “It truly is a wildlife viewing gem here in the Bay. The high visitation to the island comes with a responsibility to manage the risk of negative human-wildlife interactions, so we work with the Park Service to collect information,” added Burr.

To refer to the original article, see https://ca.audubon.org/news/thriving-seabird-colony-alcatraz-island